My wife and I were talking about Disneyland and she asked if Disney provided any type of lodging for the Cast Members.

Is there a Cast Member subsidised apartment? Is there a roommate service through Disney to help people share expenses.

I have no idea what kind of pay Disneyland affords. I hope they provide some health & retirement benefits.. but Southern California is not the cheapest place to live, I'm told - so I'm just wondering if Disney helps you out at all?

cujosr

06-01-2003, 06:24 PM

Are you seriously planning to make a move to CA just to work at DL? Prepare to live VERY cheaply for the next few years then. Some of the Apt complexes near the park do offer discounts to CMs but most are just to move in, not every month. See the discount directory when you hire in.

As for benifits, you might not get them for a while. Many CM's hire in and it may take as much as two years to see anything with the words, "Medical," or "Retirement" on it. I was there 2.5 years and was not even given a CR25 status.

To be honest I had some great times there but I will not go back. Fun for a time but don't make a career out of it.

Polar33

06-01-2003, 08:26 PM

There's nothing that's provided by Disney, although I've always thought that a place like that for CMs would probably go over quite well. There is a newsletter that goes out every so often for DL CMs that lists rooms that are available in the area and people looking for roommates. Besides the discounts provided by a few Anahiem area apartment complexes, that's about it.

As for health and retirement stuff, it all depends on your job status. The lower statuses, Casual-Temporary (CT) and Casual-Regular (CR) don't get any of said benefits. The higher statuses CR-25, Part-Time, and Full-Time do get the benefits but you must commit to working a minimum amount of hours each week. You also have to wait until a space in the higher statuses becomes available, so it may take quite a while depending on your department.

tabacco

06-01-2003, 11:18 PM

The college program used to provide subsidized housing, but it no longer exists. Seriously, if you're expecting to live in the Anaheim area and survive solely off Disneyland, don't get your hopes up. That's basically what I did last summer, sharing an apartment with 3 others, and I barely broke even for the 3 months. I wish it were otherwise, but Disneyland is not great as a sole means of income. As a CT (Seasonal employee), I made $7.20/hour which as you know is pretty pitiful. Regulars make more, but it's still not a lot. Also, toward the end of last summer I was getting scheduled for only 1 or 2 days a week, and one week they didn't schedule me any days at all. If it weren't for Fantasmic!, I would have gone hungry.

Morrigoon

06-01-2003, 11:56 PM

I've thought for a long time that Disney could accomplish a few objectives at once-

They could buy up some of those awful properties west of the park (apartment buildings), and come up with a program to rent them cheaply to CMs. Might just break even, but it would help CMs survive on the low pay, AND, act as a placeholder for the property as they slowly buy it all up until they have enough to expand the resort! And the land wouldn't just sit there costing money like the strawberry field did (until it was paved for overflow parking)

sm_cm

06-02-2003, 12:06 AM

I wish they had a housing deal! I would so be interested in that. I know Florida has some kind of housing program for their college program and cast members, but I've never heard how it works firsthand or any details of it.

And yes, like it was mentioned in above posts, the health benefits are decent, once they kick in. I was lucky (and in the right place at the right time) and went from CR to full time within my first year at DL, so I didn't have as long a wait for the benefits as some fellow cast members.

Pat-n-Eil

06-02-2003, 07:13 AM

Thank you for the replies.

cujosr, I have no intention of moving to Anaheim and working for Disneyland. I've got a great job, 13 year anniversary this October with another week of vacation (4 weeks!) and excellent medical, dental, vision, 401K, pension etc. I was only asking the question out of curiosity.

Disney is such a large part of the Anaheim economy that I thought they might provide housing. Hershey Pennsylvania is all about the Chocolate Factory and Milton Hershey indeed set up his version of Utopia by offering subsidized housing for the factory workers as well as other benefits to the community.

Kaiser Permanente started as a "company plan" for the Kaiser Steel Corporation.

I think the CMs are great, but I would assume there is a fairly high turnover rate. At the $7.00+ per hour rate, it is about the same as many fast food and other entry level workforce places. I think they could stabilize the workforce some and have less turnover (and therefore less training costs and hiring costs) by providing "subsidized" or deeply discounted living accomodations. One, Two or even Three Bedroom apartments depending on your family size. Heck, if you could get your lodging for free, $7.00+/hour becomes a living wage.